Page 10 of Tangled Like Us

I stiffen.Don’t think about her like that.

She notices that I just noticed her sniffing my button-down. “Um…you smell wonderfully.”

My dick strains against my slacks. I’m a brick wall. “Thank you.”

Jane reaches for her beer that I’d been holding, and she lands on a question. “How do you feel about Farrow rejoining security? Are you upset?”

I shake my head, almost instantly. “I’ve always wanted him to be on the team. I voted for him to stay last December.”

Back when I was a lead and the team found out Farrow had been sleeping with his client, Akara and I voted for him to keep his job. We were two votes out of three in the Tri-Force, and majority wins.

“I remember. I thought…perhaps your feelings had changed since then, and now you wished you’d voted for him to be fired.”

“No, I stand by my decision.” I notice how she’s straining her neck to keep eye contact with me. “You can look away if it’s hurting your neck.”

Jane smooths her lips together. “Um…” She blinks for a long second. “I’m quite fine…”

I can’t discern much else in the dark, but I’m trying.

“Is there a second?” she asks me.

I frown. “What?”

Jane holds my gaze. “You said, ‘first, you should be able to speak openly…’ I wondered if you wanted to make things right some other way too.”

She’s perceptive. Especially when her whole attention is on you. It’s like you’re the center of the fucking universe.

Like now.

I’m undeservingly the focal point in her blue irises.

“Second,” I tell her, “I want to make an oath with you.”

Surprise catches her breath. “What kind of oath?” Her lips start to inch upward.

What I’ve learned about the Cobalt Empire: the family of nine loves pacts, oaths, soul-binding agreements that put loyalty and trust to the test.

“I want to make you an unbreakable promise,” I tell her. “Do you do blood oaths?”

“Oh no, no blood.” She smiles. “These days, we Cobalts shake on spit.”

I would’ve even shaken on blood.Good to go.“I’m going to start unless you don’t want me to.”

She waves me forward, her face more cheerful towards me than I’ve seen in months. “I’m all ears.”

I’ve never declared something like this to a woman, and it’s the closest I’ve come to feeling like I need to drop to a fucking knee.

I grip her glittering eyes. “I’ll never break your trust again,” I promise, “and if I ever hurt Farrow or Maximoff, I’ll quit security.”

Seriousness draws her lips down. “You understand…that if you break this pact and you don’t quit security, it reflects truly badly on your character and you willneverbe in my good graces again?”

The stakes have to be high for this to be meaningful, and I can’t fathom hurting them or disappointing her. I won’t fucking break this. “I understand.”

She tenses but then nods. “I accept the oath.” Jane cups her hand below her mouth and spits on her palm, no hesitation.

I watch her for a second before I spit on my hand.

She ropes you in, Thatcher, Banks said.